This invention relates to the topical ophthalmic use of brimonidine in combination with timolol when indicated for treatment of glaucoma or ocular hypertension. Such combinations or formulations are available for separate use in the ophthalmic art and have been combined in serial application during the course of treatment of glaucoma. However, there are concerns and expressed reservations in the ophthalmic community about patient compliance when the patient is required to administer separate medications to treat a single disease or condition such as glaucoma. There is, moreover, a long felt need for an effective and safe topical ophthalmic pharmaceutical composition including brimonidine and timolol which has increased stability and requires a lower effective concentration of preservative as compared to the individual agents taken alone. Finally, there is a need to increase the efficacy of many topical ophthalmic agents, without increasing the systemic concentration of such topical agents, since it is well known that many of such topically-applied ophthalmic agents cause systemic side effects, e.g. drowsiness, heart effects, etc. Unexpectedly it has been discovered that brimonidine in combination with timolol meets these criteria.
Brimonidine is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,890,319. The use of brimonidine for providing neuroprotection to the eye is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,856,329; 6,194,415 and 6,248,741.
Timolol, as an ophthalmic drug, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,195,085 and 4,861,760.